La Condesa

We will always owe a debt of gratitude to La Condesa for giving downtown Austin a blueprint for how to do cosmopolitan dining. The standard hasn’t always been met by those that followed, but with its soaring ceilings, handsome wood furniture, bright modernist art, split-level bar and dining areas, wraparound patio and fine-tuned menu, La Condesa still shows how it’s done. Elotes, mushroom and huitlacoche huaraches, and a cheese-encased steak taco that nods to a taqueria in the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City place diners squarely in the Mexican capital. Sumptuous lamb barbacoa tacos served on bubbled and charred bacon fat tortillas and a dish of Alaskan halibut and jicama swimming in yuzu leche de tigre strike the contrasts of rich and refreshing at the restaurant that serves my favorite margarita in Austin.